Labour Market Turnover and Mobility

Labour mobility plays a role in allocating workers to suitable jobs and is important in helping the economy adjust to shocks and structural change. But there are also benefits from longer job tenure, and costs associated with workers changing jobs. This article presents some stylised facts about labour market movements and the role that labour mobility has played in facilitating economic adjustment over the past decade. While most worker turnover is associated with the normal process of workers moving between existing jobs, structural change and economic shocks also drive turnover by changing the number and type of jobs available in the economy. The movement of existing workers between different jobs has been an important mechanisim facilitating changes in the industry and geographic structure of employment over the past decade.